Forum Topic

Xmas Trees

Has this happened to anybody else. The dustmen came to our road yesterday, put all the trees on the pavement and said the lorry was coming to take them, but their still there today. They said the lorry was at the end of the road following them. But it wasn't.

Barbara Stevens ● 2499d18 Comments

Barbara Stevens ● 2499d

The same here Barbara.  And the trees are still on the road!!!

Ivonne Holliday ● 2499d

And they only have 100,000 to collect !!! All in a day ?? Maybe those that buy them should be required to dispose of them themselves.

Andy Pike ● 2499d

Perhaps we should have to keep the tree until the next Christmas, and then when we buy a new tree, we hand in the old one for recycling, and they have to take it.OR - We could move Bonfire Night to Twelfth Night?

David Ainsworth ● 2499d

Andy the dustmen took them from our gardens and put them on the pavement and everybody else in our road.

Barbara Stevens ● 2498d

I guess some years back they didn't offer to collect them and nearly everybody took more responsibility and took their tree to the 'tip' or chopped it up and burned it or added it to all the black bags they put out.  How well do they compost?  In order to avoid those pesky trees that rolled the streets they offered to take them but that has increased the number being put out for collection.I wonder how many Councils are finding they have increased amounts of waste and recycling to collect and fewer operatives available to do the work?

Philippa Bond ● 2498d

Andy, I agree.  The least people should do is clear up their own mess rather than rely on a council which already has stretched resources. There are still plenty of discarded trees around West Putney. The whole idea of growing these trees just for a couple of weeks spent dying in somebody’s front room seems so wasteful on many levels.  A waste of the land used to grow them, a waste of biomass, a waste of carbon consumed in transporting them and then getting rid of them. What happens to them?  Do they get recycled or just end up in landfill?

Jonathan Callaway ● 2498d

I thought the trees were composted for future use on the Heath, Commons, etc.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2498d

"The least people should do is clear up their own mess rather than rely on a council which already has stretched resources."Maybe dump the tree on the common and let nature recycle it?This of course will generate a lot of car journeys."The whole idea of growing these trees just for a couple of weeks spent dying in somebody’s front room seems so wasteful on many levels.""O, reason not the need!" Trouble is that this criticism condemns most human activities."What happens to them?  Do they get recycled or just end up in landfill?"From WBC site:-"Decorations and pots must be removed first as the trees are sent for composting."

David Ainsworth ● 2498d

Composting.  OK, that’s something but I still feel the whole process is so wasteful. Just one of so many wasteful things we all do I suppose.

Jonathan Callaway ● 2498d

"Just one of so many wasteful things we all do I suppose."That is true. Not the worst either:-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwaiti_oil_fires#/media/File:USAF_F-16A_F-15C_F-15E_Desert_Storm_edit2.jpgSoon to come around again?

David Ainsworth ● 2498d

I am no expert at forest management by any stretch of the imagination.I understand there is a cycle of growth of trees and, in the long run, some must be felled to encourage new growth.  I do not think forests are destroyed for Christmas trees though.I love Christmas trees as I remember many very happy times in my childhood and youth sitting round them, singing carols, enjoying ourselves. Also, Christmases with our children - tinted glasses?  It does happen once a year for very joyful celebrations.  The fact they are recycled for composting is, in my view, very encouraging.We have a small one at home in a pot and have had it for the last 6 or 7 years - still growing strong and looking very happy indeed.  Let us hope it continues for a few more years to come.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2498d

"We have a small one at home in a pot and have had it for the last 6 or 7 years - still growing strong and looking very happy indeed.  Let us hope it continues for a few more years to come."When I was a kid, we had a small Christmas tree one year, which must still have had its roots on (I seem to remember some talk that at that time the roots were usually boiled by sellers to make sure that they died quite soon, after Christmas).Anyway, this one was planted in the back garden after Christmas. We may have reused it the next year. It certainly survived until we moved house some years later. Never grew much taller though. Probably lucky to survive being planted quite near to what was our usual bonfire zone. I don't know how long it survived our departure. On Google Maps there appears to be nothing green in that back garden/area now.So it goes.

David Ainsworth ● 2498d

Hounslow has a free collection from those homes which are registered for the garden waste collection.  They instruct their residents in flats to ask their landlords about disposal.  They also have designated places in parks for residents to take their trees. They then can either collect from there or chip it right there.  I believe it is used as a mulch.  Ealing I believe also does the same with designated parks and spaces and collection from everyone on residual waste bin day - not sure what they are doing nowadays.  I saw some in Ealing recently in the park and found it quite distressing.  In the past I smelled them before I saw them but this year I have a cold and so had no prior warning.  I found it quite depressing as they all seemed in such pristine condition - a true tree massacre.In Hammersmith & Fulham I don't believe that they have a garden waste collection.  They do collect real Christmas trees from residents who have a waste collections and they also have designated drop off points.I wondered how many years these beautiful trees had been growing before they were cut down.  They are not the sort of tree that I would want to grow in my small garden.  I remember my parents had a small one in a pot which lasted several Christmases.  There are companies you can rent potted trees from.Residents walk/drag/sledge their trees to the parks and open spaces.  They can of course also take them to the various recycling centres. When garden waste was first collected separately (and free) it heavily increased the Councils' recycling rates but reduced the home composting that residents were doing.

Philippa Bond ● 2498d

Johnathan, I agree why pay so much for an xmas tree, buy artificial.  As a lady going passed as I was going shopping the dustmen had done the same in her road pulled them onto the pavement but they have not been collected.

Barbara Stevens ● 2498d

Having lived all around the world we didn't have traditional Christmas trees very often.  We learnt how to decorate bare branches with bits of tinsel and home made and painted decorations.  Crepe paper strips were sewn together and then twisted to hang in loops across the sitting room ceiling.  We had folding Chinese paper lanterns (but no candles).

Philippa Bond ● 2496d

Actu a lly I'm wrong about Hounslow this year and all properties with black wheelie bin collections (residual waste) are eligible for a collection but they have also stressed that those in flats should be looking for advice from their managing agents and landlords.  The increasing number of divided houses and flats with little or no amenity space is obviously becoming a greater problem together with a lack of responsibility when there are continuing cuts to vital services for the vulnerable.

Philippa Bond ● 2493d

...and urged to deliver their trees to the designated  drop-off points for shredding.  I've yet to check out what the other members of the Western Riverside Waste Authority that Wandsworth is a member of are doing.  They should be sharing experiences.

Philippa Bond ● 2493d